Phil Dowd, who broke QPR hearts with a late penalty award to Manchester United in a League Cup tie in 2008, is the man in the middle when the R's travel back to Old Trafford this Sunday.

Referee >>> Phil Dowd (Staffordshire), awarded a late penalty to Manchester United in a 1-0 win against Gareth Ainsworth’s QPR in a League Cup tie at Old Trafford in 2008.

Assistants >>> Peter Kirkup (Northants) and Scott Ledger (South Yorkshire)

Fourth Official >>> Andre Marriner (West Midlands)

History

Subs not used: Loach, Edwards, Tabb, Lee

Goals: Smith 90+1 (assisted Hunt)

Bookings: Hyam 22 (foul)

QPR: Green 7; Simpson 7, Dunne 8, Hill 7, Assou-Ekotto 7; Carroll 8, Barton 6 (Henry 40, 7); Benayoun 6 (Traore 68, 7), Kranjcar 7 (Phillips 85,-), O’Neil 7; Austin 7

Subs not used: Johnson, Wright-Phillips, Onuoha, Murphy

Goals: Kranjcar 52 (unassisted), O’Neil 66 (assisted Austin), Traore 74 (assisted Hill)

Bookings: Hill 57 (dissent)

Referee — Phil Dowd (Staffordshire) 7 Looked at one point like he was going to have a typically flouncy fit of temper and send Clint Hill off for protesting too much over a ridiculous decision given against Benoit Assou-Ekotto but he just about remained calm and refereed the rest of the game reasonably well.

QPR 1 Wigan 1, Sunday April 7, 2013

With things looking pretty even and QPR enterprising going forward there was an air of expectancy around Loftus Road. Sadly, if your team is in trouble, when something happens it is usually bad. On this occasion there was a throw in on the Ellerslie Road side of the ground, Zamora challenged Jordi Gomez with a high boot and the latter went down as if shot. Referee Phil Dowd seemed to be nonplussed by the whole event and initially played on but with Gomez apparently in extremis play was stopped and the trainer called on. Dowd remained inscrutable but it became clear as he strutted around the scene that he was actually conducting the equivalent of a public enquiry. Anyone who does not believe that TV replays are used in football should think otherwise because I cannot see what else was going on here other than the equivalent of a referral ‘upstairs’. He finally made a show of talking to the nearest assistant referee then waved the red card and Zamora was off.

Wigan pressed strongly straight from the kick-off and a shot from Kone was well blocked by Onuoha. Then the game was disrupted, first by a booking for Figueroa, then by him being substituted by Espinoza, then Loic Remy left the field to a standing ovation to be replaced by Mackie. All this wound down the clock and the board went up for four minutes of injury time. In the first of these Bosingwa clattered Gomez just outside the box in a very dangerous position. The latter picked himself up to strike the free kick against the wall. Then two minutes later the otherwise excellent Mbia reverted to type with a clumsy challenge on Maloney even closer to the box. After the usual messing Maloney struck the ball over the wall somewhere in the region of Taarabt, half jumping and turning his head, and straight into the goal. Loftus Road fell flat whilst the 300 Wigan supporters in the School End danced and yelled. It was a bitter blow, but in truth only one of many in recent weeks. Nail, coffin, fat lady warming up — pick your metaphor on the way out, please.

QPR: Cesar 6, Traore 6 (Onuoha 46 6), Hill 6, Samba 6, Bosingwa 6, Hoilett 5 (Taarabt 56 5), Jenas 6, Mbia 7, Townsend 8, Remy 7 (Mackie 88 -), Zamora 3

Subs Not Used: Green, Ben-Haim, Park, Granero

Booked: Remy (foul), Samba (foul)

Sent Off: Zamora (serious foul play)

Wigan: Blazquez 6, Alcaraz 6, Boyce 6, Figueroa 6 (Espinoza 88 -), McCarthy 5, Maloney 7, Gomez 7, Beausejour 6 (McArthur 6), Schamer 6, Kone 6, McManaman 6 (Di Santo 67 6)

Subs Not Used: Al Habsi, Caldwell, Stam, Henriquez

Booked: Alcaraz (foul), McCarthy (foul), Figueroa (dissent)

Referee: Phil Dowd (Staffordshire) 7 Despite the usual histrionics in truth he did not do a lot wrong and tried to keep the game flowing. The time taken to dismiss Zamora caused uproar but it was the right decision. It would just be good to get some consistency across the league and I cite the recent Grant Holt incident in the ‘lack of consistency’ category with regard to post-hoc review.

QPR 0 Man City 0, Tuesday January 29, 2013, Premier League

The second half saw referee Phil Dowd come to the fore with a controversial display. It all started brightly for Rangers with Taarabt once again beating three men and driving to the edge of the City penalty area but seeing his shot deflected through to Hart. City soon regained control after that and Rangers retreated back and kept their solid shape.

Granero was replaced by Park with two minutes to go before once again another sublime piece of Taarabt skill brought another run and another block forcing a late corner which City easily cleared. Four minutes of added time provided nowhere near the drama that the two sides witnessed at The Etihad last May and Dowd’s full time whistle was greeted with a huge cheer.

QPR: Cesar 9, Onouha 8, Hill 8, Nelsen 8, Traore 8, Derry 7, Mbia 7 (Faurlin -), Granero 5 (Park 88, -), Fabio 6, Taarabt 8, Remy 7 (Zamora 90, -)

Subs not used: Green, Murphy, Ben-Haim, Bothroyd

Booked: Granero (foul), Mbia (foul)

Man City: Hart 8, Zabaleta 8, Lescott 7, Garcia 7, Milner 6 (Sinclair 85, -), Barry 6, Nasri 5 (Dzeko 58, 5), Silva 7, Aguero 7, Tevez 5 (Rodwell 72, 6)

Subs not used: Pantalimion, Kolarov, Nastasic, Rekik

Booked: Zabaletta (foul), Barry (foul)

Referee — Phil Dowd 5 A decent first half gave way to a poor second where he seemed to favour the ‘big’ side far more than QPR, perhaps I have hooped shaped glasses on though. Missed the David Silva kick but was consistent in not awarding either of the dubious penalty claims which keeps him from dipping to a four.

Wigan 2 QPR 2, Saturday December 8, 2012, Premier League

But there’s an undercurrent to this QPR team born out of laziness and stupidity. Wigan had hardly been out of their half in the first quarter of an hour but by dallying in possession, losing the ball and then conceding a soft foul on halfway Samba Diakite invited them there. That in turn led to a first corner of the game for the home side and although that was partially cleared Jose Bosingwa then committed the daftest challenge you could ever wish to see on Jean Beausejour right on the edge of the box — choosing to deliberately barge the Wigan man over as he leapt for a high ball rather than actually make the effort to compete for the header himself. David Jones, as he did with occasional success during his Wolves days, volleyed towards goal after flicking the dead ball up for himself but Green was alive to the danger and palmed it comfortably over the bar. That meant another corner and although QPR appealed to referee Dowd that the subsequent delivery had gone behind off a Wigan man another quickly followed that Jamie Mackie half cleared to an unmarked James McCarthy who volleyed in the opening goal via a deflection off Mackie’s shin as he attempted to close him down.

Referee Phil Dowd — who I felt was fairly generous to Wigan all afternoon — awarded the home side a free kick ten minutes before the break for handball on the edge of the box by Adel Taarabt. He’d initially waved advantage on with Wigan still in possession, but when they chose to run it away from the danger zone he decided to bring it back and let them have another go which seemed rather kind. Jordi Gomez ended any debate by lashing the ball over the bar.

Phil Dowd penalised Stephane Mbia for a foul on James McCarthy after 52 minutes — a frustrating decision not only because Mbia was the man in possession of the ball and appeared to be the one who was sinned against, but also because it was one of the few times Rangers came through a battle in the midfield area as the victors. When play restarted service was quickly resumed as Emmerson Boyce quickly emerged from two challenges he had no right to win with the ball and set up Gomez for a powerful long range drive that shifted in the air and brought another fine save from Green.

Roberto Martinez sent on Shaun Maloney, returning from injury, instead of David Jones to press for a winner. QPR’s frustration manifested itself in complaints to the referee, initially from Cisse who was rightly furious not to be awarded a free kick on the halfway line but overall seemed to be too busy moaning to Dowd and his team mates than simply getting on with the job.

Wigan: Al Habsi 6, Boyce 6, Lopez 5, McArthur 6, Bausejour 7, Jones 7 (Maloney 76, 6), McCarthy 8, Stam 7, Kone 6, Gomez 6, Di Santo 6 (Boselli 85, -)

Subs not used: Pollit, Golobart, Fyvie, Redmond, McManaman

Goals: McCarthy 19 (unassisted), 74 (assisted Beausejour)

QPR: Green 8, Bosingwa 5 (Fabio 84,-), Nelsen 7, Hill 6, Traore 5, Diakite 5 (Granero 77, 5), Mbia 6, Derry 6, Taarabt 6 (Cisse 58, 6), Wright-Phillips 5, Mackie 6

Goals: Nelsen 26 (assisted Taarabt), Cisse 71 (assisted Wright-Phillips)

Bookings: Taarabt 45 (foul)

Referee — Phil Dowd (Staffordshire) 6 I wavered between a five and a six for the referee and went for the higher mark simply because there were no big decisions that he got wrong in the game, and that’s all you can really ask for as a minimum standard. However I thought he made a number of perplexing calls, and QPR were very unfortunate to come out on the wrong side of them on a number of occasions.

Spurs 2 QPR 1, Sunday September 23, 2012, Premier League

Granero displayed a cynical adeptness at repeatedly, deliberately fouling opponents without drawing the referee’s attention in this game and got away with six before Phil Dowd finally booked him in the second half. After the third — a particularly blatant trip on Aaron Lennon as he threatened to streak away — Spurs assistant boss Steffen Freund leapt from the bench, marched to the edge of the technical to demand further action. If ever there was a bigger case of a pot and a kettle becoming embroiled in a racism row this was it and I’m sure in the cold light of Monday morning the German watched the game back with a wry smile on his face knowing that Granero is a canny exponent of an art form Freund was renowned for in his playing days.

It was rotten luck that QPR, and Faurlin in particular, scarcely deserved, but the important thing having suffered the set back was to recover from it and rebuild. Instead Rangers committed too many men to the first attack from the kick off and paid the ultimate price on the counter. Granero was caught in possession, belatedly diving and looking for a free kick that he might have received had he been less honest initially and hit the deck when he first felt content but was never going to having tried to make the best of a bad situation, and from that point on Rangers were in trouble. The cause wasn’t helped by Onuoha crashing to ground as he chased Vertonghen back — the QPR bench protested furiously that this should have been a free kick — and they were always short as the Dutchman fed Bale in the area. Although his shot was brilliantly saved one on one by Granero he could only divert it up and onto the cross bar from where, as if QPR hadn’t had enough bad luck, it fell perfectly for Defoe to control and slam into an open goal.

The referee added four minutes on at the end and Spurs engaged in clock running — very slowly sending on Tom Huddlestone for Clint Dempsey and Andros Townsend for Aaron Lennon. Granero shot wide and Dowd, who’d been mercifully unfussy up to this point, suddenly decided he wanted to be pernickety about the placing of a late free kick on halfway as the clock continued to run.

Spurs: Friedel 8, Walker 6, Gallas 6, Vertonghen 8, Bale 7, Dembele 6, Sandro 6, Sigurdsson 5 (Caulker 46, 6), Dempsey 7 (Huddlestone 88, -), Lennon 7 (Townsend 90, -), Defoe 7

Subs: Lloris, Dawson, Falque, Mason

Goals: Faurlin (OG 60), Defoe (61)

QPR: César 8, Bosingwa — (Dyer 3, 8), Hill 7, Nelsen 7, Onuoha 7, Wright-Phillips 7 (Mackie 77, 6), Granero 7, Faurlin 7, Park 7, Hoilett 7, Zamora 8 (Cissé 73, 6)

Subs: Green, Diakite, Derry , Ehmer

Goals: Zamora 34 (assisted Faurlin)

Booked: Granero 54 (repetitive fouling), Dyer 87 (foul)

Referee: Phil Dowd (Staffordshire) 7 QPR were very unhappy about two fouls in the lead up to Defoe’s goal and while I think they had a case with both, they’re the sort you rarely seen given. I thought Dowd allowed the game to flow, made allowances for the conditions when handing out cards, and overall handled the game reasonably well. I thought the penalty appeals from both sides were rightly ignored. A shame that in injury time he decided to be picky about the placing of a free kick having shown plenty of common sense before that.

QPR 0 Fulham 1, Saturday February 25, 2012, Premier League

The other developing theme in the game was Diakite. He’d already committed three fouls that were worthy of yellow cards in their own right before he finally did pick up a booking from Phil Dowd in the nineteenth minute for hacking first into Dembele and then into poor Bryan Ruiz who was little more than a punching bag for the Malian in the first half an hour of this game. Diakite apparently doesn’t speak much English — perhaps “stay on your feet you pillock” should be the first phrase he is taught.

The only thing I will say in Diakite’s defence is that Danny Murphy conceded four free kicks in the first 20 minutes, and six overall on the day, and wasn’t even spoken to by referee Dowd. The fourth came immediately after Diakite’s first booking and resulted in a free kick that Taiwo his straight at the keeper.

Now one of the criticisms that is coming up time and again with QPR at the moment is a lack of leadership, talking on the field and people taking responsibility. The responsibility for what happened next lies solely at the feet of Diakite who showed stupidity on a level I can scarcely remember by continuing to fly into ridiculous challenges he had no chance of winning until - three fouls, a final warning from Phil Dowd and ten minutes since his first booking — he wildly chopped down Ruiz at the knee for a final time and was sent off. But I’d also question where the leadership and talking was as well.

QPR went close to an equaliser twice in identical circumstances either side of the midway point of the half. First Aaron Hughes was fortunate not to turn the ball into his own net after Dowd had played advantage through a foul on Shaun Wright-Phillips and Nedum Onuoha had crossed. Dembele was retrospectively booked for that foul, and John Arne Riise also saw yellow five minutes later for a late chop on Barton which had again been initially waved as play on so that Taarabt could feed Mackie into the penalty area but he dragged a low shot across the face of the goal and out.

Phil Dowd certainly isn’t my favourite referee, but I thought he had a good game here apart from the free license he gave Danny Murphy and one obvious piece of poor officiating 18 minutes from time. Having just been booked Moussa Dembele cynically and deliberately dragged back Joey Barton after the midfielder had gone past him. It was an obvious second yellow card but Dowd, who to be fair had tried hard to give Diakite the benefit of the doubt for a long time, only awarded a free kick. Then, ten minutes later, he booked substitute Chris Baird for a foul on Bobby Zamorawhere the contact appeared to be minimal if it existed at all.

QPR: Kenny 6, Onuoha 6, Ferdinand 6, Hill 7, Taiwo 5 (Traore 72, 6), Diakite 5, Barton 6, Wright-Phillips 5 (Buzsaky 83, -), Mackie 6, Taarabt 7, Zamora 6

Subs Not Used: Cerny, Derry , Gabbidon, Bothroyd, Smith

Sent Off: Diakite 33 (two yellows)

Booked: Diakite (repetitive fouling), Diakite (repetitive fouling)

Fulham: Schwarzer 7, Kelly 6, Hughes 7, Hangeland 8, Riise 6, Ruiz 6 (Duff 78, -), Murphy 7 (Baird 74, 6), Dembele 8, Dempsey 7, Pogrebnyak 7, Johnson 7 (Etuhu 81, -)

Subs Not Used: Stockdale, Orlando Sa, Senderos, Frei

Booked: Pogrebnyak (over celebrating), Dembele (foul), Riise (foul), Baird (foul)

Goals: Pogrebnyak 7 (assisted Dembele)

Referee: Phil Dowd (Staffordshire) 8 Absolutely no choice whatsoever with the Diakite sending off, and actually seemed to do his best for the lad by giving him more warnings and let offs than he probably deserved. That said, Murphy fouled repetitively without ever getting a talking to and Dembele was very fortunate not to be sent off in the second half. No real complaints though, the game was well refereed.

QPR 1 MK Dons 0, Tuesday January 17, 2012

Nothing annoys me more than when people privileged enough to be paid to commentate on football games complain about being bored (Alan Green) but I’ve been to book club meetings more exciting than the first 20 minutes of this one. Diligently waiting pen in hand for action I noted a petulant foul and mouthful of dissent from Federico Macheda that referee Phil Dowd made a public point of clamping down on, and a weak shot from Luke Chadwick that dribbled straight through to Paddy Kenny. When Macheda did win the ball cleanly he then released Jay Bothroyd who cut into the area well before blasting a shot high over the bar.

Another QPR man thought he’d got his first goal for the club from the resulting corner. Having no doubt watched videos of Rangers playing this season, and then facing up to them for 90 minutes in the original tie, MK Dons could be forgiven for not paying close attention to the marking at set pieces given how consistently awful they have been at Loftus Road this year. But their failure to spot Shaun Derry loitering unmarked in the six yard box could have cost them when the midfielder turned in what would have been his first goal since November 4, 2006, had referee Phil Dowd not penalised him for an infringement on the goalkeeper David Martin. Replays showed that Derry had indeed, needlessly, reached behind him to hold the goalkeeper in place and annoyingly he probably would have scored anyway had he not done so such was the quality of the delivery from Buzsaky.

MK Dons boss Karl Robinson immediately sent on Daniel Powell for Luke Chadwick and later Jay O’Shea (would you really call your kid Jay if his last name was O’Shea?) for the hero of the first match Dean Bowditch but there was a sense now that they would do well to take anything from a tie having passed up so many opportunities to win across both games. The frustration of the situation probably had a lot to do with Ibehre’s late lunge on Shaun Derry that justifiably brought a first yellow card of the night from referee Phil Dowd.

That new defensive attitude shone through twice in three added minutes at the end of the game. First Tommy Smith and Shaun Wright-Phillips played keep ball with a late corner, and then Luke Young took a booking on the chin for a professional foul on Ibehre as he threatened to break clear across the halfway line. If only Alejandro Faurlin had done the same against West Brom a couple of months ago, things could all be very different at QPR now. The resulting free kick was headed wide by Doumbe and that was pretty much that.

QPR: Kenny 6, Young 6, Ferdinand 7, Gabbidon 6, Hill 7, Mackie 6, Buzsaky 7 (Helguson 72, 6), Derry 5, Wright-Phillips 5, Macheda 5 (Smith 62, 6), Bothroyd 6 (Orr 86, -)

Subs Not Used: Cerny, Hall, Campbell, Ephraim

Booked: Young (foul)

Goals: Gabbidon 73 (assisted Wright-Phillips)

Milton Keynes Dons: Martin 7, Smith 8, Doumbe 7, S Williams 7, Lewington 7, Gleeson 7, Potter 6, Chadwick 6 (Daniel Powell 73, 6), Bowditch 6 (O'Shea 83, -), MacDonald 5, Ibehre 7

Subs Not Used: McLoughlin, Flanagan, Baldock, McNamee, G Williams

Booked: Ibehre (foul)

Referee: Phil Dowd (Staffordshire) 8 Makes a big showy song and dance over every free kick and warning which can grate after a while but he refereed this game perfectly well and got very few decisions wrong on the night.

QPR 0 Newcastle 0, Monday September 12, 2011

If Newcastle ’s ambition had waned somewhat by the end of the game, you couldn’t fault it to start with. Ryan Taylor, full back and free kick taker extraordinaire, stepped up and whacked a seriously ambitious shot well wide of the target from the thick end of 45 yards out in the opening minute of the game with the first set piece awarded by referee Phil Dowd.

Dowd is never shy of producing a card or four in a game and quickly whistled his yellow one out here when Shola Ameobi objected rather too vehemently to the award of a QPR free kick for a foul by Ryan Taylor on Shaun Wright Phillips. You’ll forgive the over-use of Christian names in this report I’m sure, given the presence of two Taylors and two Ameobis in the Newcastle matchday squad

It had been 20 minutes of solid QPR pressure and dominance with the only black spot coming whenShaun Derry picked up a yellow card for a tackle on Leon Best on halfway. Referee Dowd didn’t seem like he was even going to give a free kick at first but when Best rolled over he duly obliged, and then when Best stayed down he handed out a yellow card as well. Ridiculously harsh that one, especially given Best’s sudden and miraculous recovery once the punishment had been metered out. He, unsurprisingly, played on well into the second half without a further problem.

Much of the debate in the North East before the game had been about whether Italian full back Davide Santon would start the game instead of Ryan Taylor. Santon is potentially a fantastic signing, a talented youngster who burst onto the scene at Inter Milan before losing his way, but Taylor, who was seemingly only bought by Newcastle in the first place because he kept scoring against them, has made a decent start to the season in his position. A goal against Sunderland is always likely to win you friends on Tyneside and he had an ideal chance to repeat that feat here with five minutes left on the watch.

Again I have to criticise the referee for rank inconsistency. At the Loft End DJ Campbell did magnificently wide on the QPR right to skin his man and accelerate into the penalty area with the Newcastle player yanking him back by the shirt the whole way. Campbell escaped and an advantage was rightly played but when the move broke down a split second later Dowd ignored pleas to bring it back for a Rangers free kick. Fair enough, we had an advantage and lost it. But then, within seconds, an identical situation emerged at the other end when Faurlin fouled Obertan on the edge of the box but the ball rolled to Gutierrez and advantage was waved on. When the Argentinean then lost possession Dowd happily pulled the play back and awarded a free kick. I cannot recall such a stark piece of one-rule-for-one-one-for-another officiating since Trevor Kettle disallowed a QPR goal for a challenge on Southampton keeper Kelvin Davis and then two minutes later allowed the Saints to bundle home a winner in identical circumstances.

Warnock sent on Jason Puncheon for an unhappy cameo and Rangers again had cause to feel aggrieved with the referee when Adel Taarabt stuck the ball in the net only to find the play had long since been pulled back to the halfway line for an unseen offence that nobody in F Block could even hazard a guess at.

No matter what flood, fire, plague or pestilence befalls a game these days you can pretty much guarantee that four minutes will be added onto the end of the second half and referee Dowd, despite much exaggerated posturing and watch gesturing during Krul's increasingly blatant clock running, duly obliged with the standard offering. For one reason or another the ball was barely in play for a quarter of that time and both teams were forced to settle for a point — Rangers left to curse their finishing, Newcastle grateful to get back on the bus and go home.

QPR: Kenny 7, Young 8, Ferdinand 7, Gabbidon 6, Traore 7 (Connolly 51, 6), Derry 7, Faurlin 8, Wright-Phillips 8 (Puncheon 88, -) Barton 7, Taarabt 8, Bothroyd 7 (Campbell 80, -)

Subs Not Used: Murphy, Hall, Buzsaky, Smith

Booked: Derry (foul)

Newcastle: Krul 6, Simpson 7, Steven Taylor 6, Coloccini 7, Ryan Taylor 6, Cabaye 6,Tiote 7, Obertan 6 (Sammy Ameobi 88, -), Gutierrez 6, Best 6 (Marveaux 82, -),Shola Ameobi 5 (Ba 64, 6)

Subs Not Used: Elliot, Santon, Guthrie, Lovenkrands

Booked: Shola Ameobi (dissent),Tiote (repetitive fouling),Steven Taylor (foul)

Referee: Phil Dowd (Staffordshire) 6 The predicted card fest, that looked even more likely than it had done before kick off when Ameobi was booked after four minutes, failed to materialise and overall Mr Dowd was not too bad. However, as already discussed, the Derry booking was a result of player reaction rather than anything the referee had seen, the failure to clamp down on Krul’s time wasting or punish him with some proper stoppage time was poor, and the late chance for Taylor from a free kick came from a terribly inconsistent application of the advantage rule.

Man Utd 1 QPR 0, Tuesday November 11, 2008

Two minutes of injury time were advertised, but Dowd played three to give United a chance to have one last go from a corner — Stewart cleared the ball and the whistle sounded immediately. Rangers had been under the cosh, and were yet to have a shot on goal of their own, but they were hanging in there. If there was a criticism of them in the first half it was that twice they had been given a chance to put a couple of free kicks into the box from 40 or 50 yards out and twice the delivery had been very poor. Set pieces were always going to be our best chance of nicking a goal and the way we wasted the ones we got was disappointing.

United were clearly starting to get frustrated but two minutes after the Blackstock chance they introduced young striker Danny Wellbeck at the expense of Rodrigo Possebon and it gave them a crucial added cutting edge. Four minutes after coming on Wellbeck ran in behind the QPR defence, turned Ramage on the byline and then hit the deck as the ball ran back to Cerny. He would not have scored, he had toed the ball too far in front of him and Cerny had collected, but for the first time in the game a QPR player had lost his composure and gone to ground on an opponent. Stretford End, United struggling, player sent sprawling — there was only ever going to be one call. Ramage looked distraught, his best performance for the club so far ruined by a rush of blood to the head.

Tevez embarked on a mazy, bendy, ridiculously over elaborate run up and some half hour later arrived at the ball and sent Cerny the wrong way to give United the lead. Before the kick had even been taken Ainsworth was readying Sam Di Carmine on the bench and sure enough once United had gone into the lead the Italian came on to replace Lee Cook.

Now with three recognised strikers on the pitch QPR actually started to threaten. Almost right from the kick off Blackstock declined to shoot when the ball bounced up invitingly in the penalty area for him and then on the very next attack the R’s got the ball in the net. Again Blackstock struggled to get a shot away with the ball bouncing all over the place, then Mahon hit a half volley into the ground and as the ball bounced up Di Carmine headed home from six yards out. The away end burst into life, but the passion was killed almost immediately as the sight of a linesman’s flag in the air brought a premature end to the celebrations.

QPR: Cerny 9, Ramage 7, Stewart 9, Hall 9, Connolly 7, Mahon 8, Rowlands 8, Buzsaky 5 (Agyemang 7), Parejo 4 (Ledesma 7) Cook 5 (Di Carmine 7) Blackstock 5

Subs Not Used: Cole, Delaney, Gorkss, Ephraim

Man Utd: Kuszczak 6, Rafael Da Silva 7, Neville 7 (Vidic 89, -), Evans 7, O'Shea 7, Gibson 7, Possebon 7 (Welbeck 72, 8), Anderson 7, Nani 7, Tevez 8, Park 8

Subs Not Used: Foster, Carrick, Manucho, Cleverley, Gray

Goals: Tevez 76 pen (assisted Nani)

Referee: Phil Dowd (Staffordshire) 8 No bookings and no real controversy. The QPR disallowed goal was offside, the penalty was a penalty. I thought we were lucky to escape a hand ball shout in the first minute but other than that it was hard to fault the referee.

Norwich 1 QPR 0, Saturday December 30, 2006

Ten minutes later Stewart was caught out by Earnshaw as he tried to shield a ball away for a goal kick and the big Jamaican hauled him to the ground as he tried to recover. The incident took place a matter of inches away from the penalty area and Stewart was unlucky to escape without a card or a spot kick being awarded. Marcus Bignot wasn't so lucky in the next attack when he dragged Huckerby back to prevent the speedy winger racing away from him and he picked up the first yellow of the game from Phil Dowd.

Norwich: Gallacher 7, Colin 7, Shackell 7, Doherty 6, Drury 7,Croft 8 (Hughes 77, 6), Safri 8 (McVeigh 88, -), Etuhu 7, Huckerby 7, Dublin 8,Earnshaw 7

Subs Not Used: Lewis, Fleming, Ryan Jarvis

Goals: Dublin 69

QPR: Royce 7, Bignot 5, Stewart 7, Mancienne 7, Milanese 5,Gallen 5 (Blackstock 77, 5), Rowlands 7 (Ward 41, 5), Lomas 7, Cook 5, Furlong 5, Ray Jones 5

Subs Not Used: Cole, Baidoo, Kanyuka

Booked: Bignot, Cook

Ref: P Dowd (Staffordshire) 5 - Pretty home orientated, allowed Dublin to challenge pretty much however he liked while Furlong was penalised every time he went near the ball. Also gave a number of free kicks to Lee Croft in the first half which quite blatantly came from dives, seemed to get wise to him though after a particularly obvious flop right in front of the away fans.

Prior to that Dowd refereed Rangers' 4-2 home win against Crystal Palace in 2006/07, awarding Rangers a stone wall penalty for a foul by Danny Butterfield on Lee Cook. In 2004/05 he refereed us twice, in a 3-1 home defeat by Sunderland and a 1-0 defeat at Leicester where he disallowed two perfectly good Martin Rowlands goals for reasons known only to him. Dowd also refereed the infamous 2-0 home defeat by Fulham in 2001 when Clarke Carlisle and Richard Langley both ruptured their cruciate ligaments. In 1999/00 he refereed a 2-1 home win against Tranmere and the season before he was in the middle for our 3-2 away defeat against the same opponents.

Stats

Dowd has started the game in fairly card happy form, with ten yellows in two appointments so far, including four in his first Premier League game of the season at Spurs v Liverpool just before the international break. He started with Sheffield Wednesday’s 3-2 win at Middlesbrough and has awarded three penalties in 180 minutes of football so far.

He finished last season in spectacular form — six red cards in his last eight matches, four reds in the last three fixtures. That included one red and eight yellows in Sunderland’s 4-0 home win against Cardiff, a haul he’d matched at Forest v Middlesbrough way back in September as his biggest of the season. In total he showed a hefty 158 yellows and eight reds in 35 appointments — 4.51 bookings a game on average.

Dowd was lucky to be refereeing at all the season before after failing the Premier League fitness test back in May 2012. After passing it second time around the Staffordshire official was free to continue in the top flight for the thirteenth consecutive season and he finished with 130 yellows and five reds in 38 games. His biggest haul by far this season was ten yellows and a red in Crystal Palace 's London derby with Millwall in October.

In 2011/12 he showed 137 yellows and five reds in 38 games (3.6 bookings a match). He started the campaign with 15 yellows in his first two games and showed at least one card in every single one of his appointments. The eight yellows he showed in the Liverpool v Sunderland game at the start of the season remained his highest total in a single game for the rest of the season.

He refereed Manchester United on three occasions last season — a 4-1 win at Swansea in August, a 1-0 Christmas victory at Norwich, and a 3-1 loss at Chelsea in January when Nemanja Vidic was sent off.

Other appointments

Premier League >>> Mark Clattenburg has the Arsenal v Man City game on Saturday lunchtime.

Championship >>> Mike Jones drops down from the top flight to take charge of Reading v Fulham. Paul Tierney has been given the Forest v Derby game on the Sunday, which given his largely lousy performances when refereeing QPR recently comes as something of a surprise.

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TacticalR added 22:10 - Sep 8 I have this feeling that Dowd likes to be the centre of attention, and that always worries me in a ref.
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